A Candy for Your Thoughts?

I feel very lucky to Chair the West Vancouver School District Comprehensive School Health Committee. I have written (here) about this group before and a presentation we heard this fall from the McCreary Centre Society. Our committee includes students, parents, teachers, administrators, support staff, the District of West Vancouver and a number of key personnel from Vancouver Coastal Health. We had another excellent session today and one topic emerged that clearly merits more discussion.

There have been amazing changes in our schools over the last five years when it comes to healthy choices and healthy eating. The Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in BC Schools have eliminated the sale of unhealthy foods and beverages in schools. While, from time-to-time, groups need reminders about alternatives to cupcake sales, students in our secondary schools now, will never know a time when vending machines were stocked with Kit Kats and Coca Cola. We have proudly been leaders with this work, and have exceptionally supportive schools and parents, supported by Kathy Romses, a Community Dietitian with Vancouver Coastal Health, and a provincial leader in the area.

The discussion today focussed on: while we have made great progress with food sales, candy is still widely being used as a reward. The word “rampant” was used to describe the use of candy as a reward for good work, on-task behaviour, among a host of other reinforcements in classrooms. The consensus of the group was we need to address this. Parents are frustrated that while they are promoting healthy choices, some schools are giving mixed messages. The guidelines do speak to selling food items only, so it does seem to send a mixed message.

I think there are a couple of approaches to this. First, there is the issue of the use of extrinsic motivators with everything we read from respected professionals like Alfie Kohn who argues:

More than 70 studies have found that the more you reward people for doing something, the more they lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward. It’s not just that rewards are ineffective over the long haul; it’s that they are actively counterproductive.

There is also the recent thinking of Daniel Pink in Drive, where he writes about what motivates us (this RSA Video below is well worth 11 minutes of your time if you have not seen it):

Even if we don’t look at the issue of motivation, there is the health issue of using candy as a reward. As Kathy Romses points out, food rewards connect food to mood and encourage rewarding or comforting oneself with food and eating when you’re not hungry; long-term eating patterns are often carried into adulthood; sticky or foods high in sugar cause tooth decay; using unhealthy foods as a reward sends a mixed message about healthy eating.

Okay, great, but what are teachers (and for that matter, parents) suppose to do? Kathy, as shared in her VCH document, Healthier Rewards, also has a series of suggestions if you are looking for extrinsic non-food rewards.

The healthy schools movement is clearly a journey and we have made some great progress. Today’s discussion is a good reminder we still have some more important conversations to have in schools, and communities as we promote healthy lifestyles.

* Thanks to Kathy Romses and others on the District Comprehensive School Health Committee for their thoughts that contributed to this post.

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I’m blessed to work with a wonderful group of families (of home-based learners) in a “family learning program,” which means I’m not in a classroom anymore. However, my husband (a retired physician) and I still discuss the school system quite often. Here are a couple of other ideas for creating motivation in a class of students.

1. Do whatever it takes to make your class feel like a family. Children want naturally to impress and be “approved of” by the loving adults in their lives. As soon as we become loving adults, that motivation kicks in. (The other nice thing about becoming a family is that we can then use this in our repertoire of classroom management strategies: “We don’t do that in this family” is a powerful admonishment that rings true for children. Kids want to belong.)

2. Use the concept of the personal best. We can set up systems that might look like external motivators, but which are simply recording each child’s progress — so that they can keep track of it and celebrate it.

3. Teach kids about the psychology of motivation, and how each of us has a unique suite of motivators that drives us. For example, I cannot resist a dare (which is why I’ve never tried smoking). I also like checkmarks, and deadlines help move me along in assignments. Others are stressed out by dares and deadlines, but use support groups and affirmations.

Here’s my list, compiled from my own experience plus Barbara Sher’s book, Live the Life You Love:

Children don’t need teachers to extrinsically bribe and bully them to learn – to do so is to grossly misunderstand what science has to say about motivation – not to mention it also dehumanizes children and teaches them that when you want someone to do something, you simply need to use power to force your will on them.

It’s also important to note that using food as a manipulator might be one of the best ways to encourage some form of eating disorder.

The best educators know that students should experience their successes and failures not as reward and punishment but as information. This means we all need to shift from a ‘doing things to’ kids mentality to a ‘work with’ kids mentality.

When kids know they are unconditionally accepted by those people who mean the most to them, they come to see mistakes and failures as inevitable and valuable parts of learning.

The alternative is kids learn to keep their distance from those who conditionally accept them in a bid to control through seduction.

There’s a reason why some say: the more you use power over others, the less real influence you have with them.

Thanks Joe for your feedback. It is interesting that as we have banned the sale of junk food in schools, from all accounts it has good underground – and is being used more and more as a reward. As you rightly point out there is the health issue and also the issue of rewarding successes.

Given all the recent discussions about reporting and using grades as motivators – this conversation was an interesting parallel.

I find it ironic that we are criticizing teachers awarding a piece of chocolate twice a year when we are not really looking into the real cost (health wise) of the food items sold by PAC groups at virtually every elementary school on the North Shore. Sure, we can take out pop machines and refuse to offer candy but the ‘take out’ mentality is alive and well in WV schools.

The food days raise thousands of dollars serving many ‘choose sometimes’ items. As a teacher and a parent, I am infinitely more concerned about the fast food aspect of the hot lunch days at our schools. For example, hundreds of students enjoy a 365 calorie (28% of their recommended daily carbohydrate intake) Booster Juice once or twice a month. This is like a meal in a drink that is served along side a piece of cheese pizza. A few schools are offering some healthier fare but the fact is, the food days survive by selling hot dogs, pizza, macaroni and cheese and chicken fingers. Were these items not offered, I suspect the food days would end.

Do my kids have take out food occasionally? Yes, as does virtually every child. We have it as a treat, once a month or less, not as part of a school lunch routine. My question is whether or not schools should be selling nutritionally mediocre food to kids, producing shocking amounts of waste- much of which is not recycled- because it is a money maker for schools and a convenience for parents.

We are simply reinforcing the take out mentality in our schools. The long term health costs are huge and we are advertising for these food providers just as much as if we had their machines in our schools. I would be pleased to participate in any forum that deals with health issues and our schools!

Thanks Carrie for your thoughtful post. Your comments pick up on some of the thoughts of teachers and parents at our last meeting. Absolutely there is nothing wrong with chocolate a couple times a year, the concern is classes where candy is regularly used as a reward and then this is compounded by a steady stream of parents bringing in candy and other sweets for almost daily food celebrations. It was interesting to hear strategies that some schools have in place to find alternatives for parents who want to celebrate birthdays etc. with food. It was also pointed out that the replacement is sometimes “dollar store” toys which are also not desirable.

I do like your thoughts around hot lunch programs. I think there have been some very positive moves in recent years, and I am pleased to see they have become healthier. The next step, according to many, is to also focus on sustainability – these events tend to produce enormous amounts of garbage. The “take out” culture you describe I think is also important to add to the conversation.

Kathy Romses will bring together hot lunch coordinators in the spring, and it is a regular topic with parents, so hopefully it is one you are raising at your childrens’ school. I will let you know if there are other venues to continue the discussion.

Well, Joe beat me to this one… using any kind of treats as a reward does nothing but put the focus on just that… the reward. Using rewards gets kids good at – getting rewards.

If we are looking for certain results and behaviours, we need to be looking at WHY these results are not happening – ie. disengaged kids, lengthy curricula, standardized schooling. If we start to change the system so it fits the students rather than trying to change the students so they fit the system we will not need the use of rewards.